In the context of Industry 4.0, flexible manufacturing plays a significant role in developing the factory of the future. CHAIKMAT project aims to propose a novel AI-based approach that will enhance flexibility in manufacturing, increase the transparency of decision-making systems, and improve trust between humans and machines. Accordingly, we propose a human-centric Artificial Intelligence (AI) approach that investigates whether the factory’s machines are capable of performing a new production process and then provides human experts meaningful explanations of how the decision process is conducted. To do so, CHAIKMAT will orchestrate exploiting ontologies, using semantic web reasoning capabilities, and machine learning models through a manufacturing commonsense Knowledge graph. The validation will be ensured through a real test plant that includes small robot stations and transportation systems that will be designed and developed within the project.

Tropical freshwater systems support fisheries that provide food security and incomes for hundreds of millions of people worldwide. These fisheries are more likely to be heavily exploited across all species, size classes and trophic levels, in contrast to temperate target fisheries where capital cost, barriers to entry, and travel distance focus exploitation on high value species. Almost nothing is known about how tropical indiscriminate fisheries respond to change. They may be fragile due to chaotic interactions between complex biology and complex human use, or their foodwebs may be simplified by heavy exploitation in ways that make them robust and resilient in the face of change. Climate change therefore puts these systems at risk in ways that have huge repercussions for poverty alleviation but are very poorly understood. Here, we propose to (i) construct a general theory for understanding the social and ecological implications of truly indiscriminate fisheries under climate change, and; (ii) develop and test a specific application of this theory for the important case of the Tonle Sap fishery, Cambodia. Our focus on the Tonle Sap—perhaps the largest indiscriminate tropical freshwater fishery—allows us to inform responses to climate change in a fishery of major importance and one in which climate change interacts with other flow modifications (such as upstream development). We bring social science, fisheries, economics and management expertise to bear on this problem from research labs in eight universities and NGOs across three continents. The results of the research will be integrated into management through partners in three ministries, multiple communities and NGOs. Social impact in Cambodia will result by informing implementation of recent major management changes that have converted privately held fishing lots into community fisheries. Our team includes NGOs, local universities and early-career researchers to help effect this change. Internationally, our results will inform similar systems that feed and provide income for millions of people by revealing management tools effective in heavily exploited, dynamic freshwater fisheries as climate changes.

At the confluence of Computer Science and the Humanities, our project, whose fields of action are in underwater and naval archeology, gathers researchers from academia and industry working in France, Malta and the USA. Our central objective is to build an information system based on ontologies. This information system will provide a formal framework and tools to express and manage digital content and expert knowledge in a homogenous way. Our second objective is the development of methods for collecting data on sites sites and their integration into the information system right during the acquisition phase. The archaeological survey process is analyzed based on the discrepancies between the models generated by a large corpus of formal knowledge and large amount of photogrammetric data. In the context of underwater surveying and excavation, photogrammetry proved to be a nearly ideal tool. This declination of the link between measurement/knowledge in photogrammetry /ontology is appropriate, both in the context of naval archeology, where possible measures are often partial, and in that of underwater archeology, where is the aim is to develop sophisticated pattern recognition 3D/2D, which will propose or validate typological assumptions from very precise measurements. The project is based on a survey of an exceptional deep water shipwreck in Malta (located 110m deep and probably the oldest shipwreck archaic central Mediterranean) which requires complete automation of the survey phase, using robots. The survey of the current state of this shipwreck will be achieved through an automated process, departing from the recognition and localization of amphorae and other manufactured objects visible on the surface layer. To achieve this full automation objective we will develop an original approach of underwater photogrammetry to be deployed from a specific instrumental complex implemented with the resources of the company COMEX. This photogrammetric approach is supported by a body of archaeological knowledge formalized in an ontology, both from the points of view of theoretical and geometrical conception of the artifacts and components involved, within the ontology developed - trades will be implemented to support and guide the process of measurement and exploitation of this measure. In a second step, we will initiate a process of generalization of this approach to the body of naval archeology through several particular case study. The relation measurement/knowledge will be studied in the context of a naval archeology in collaboration with Texas A&M University which on one hand has already start working to formalize structural element of vessel and on the other hand led various archaeological excavations in the Mediterranean on this topic. A more complete and detailed ontology, already initiated at Texas A&M University, will describe the structural elements of the vessel and propose a generalization of the relation measurement/knowledge is proposed in the context of naval archeology.

Despite the past and present successes of vaccination for the control of infectious diseases, new vaccines need to be developed that respond to the societal demands for improving disease prevention. Vaccines that are efficient in one administration, that protect against a variety of rapidly mutating pathogen variants, and that cure chronic infections and cancers are major pursued goals. New strategies from basic immunological research in the mouse revealed that antigenized immunoglobulin-based vaccines that target dendritic cells (DC)- the key cell that orchestrate immunity- generate an unequaled quality of immunogenicity. Furthermore, the specific targeting of DC subsets resulted in eliciting specific arms of immunity i.e. either strong antibody or cytotoxic responses. However given the limited predictive value of mouse results, the translation of this approach to “real” species, such as human and domestic animals, requires further demonstration. DC subsets are well represented in the skin that appears as a convenient and efficient site for vaccine delivery. Pig is a model of choice for skin delivery, as human and swine skin structures and their DC compositions share a high degree of similarities. In addition, pig and human are both sensitive to zoonotic pathogens, with influenza representing a permanent threat as demonstrated by the 2009 pandemic. The goal of “DCVacFlu” is to generate Flu-antigenized antibody-based vaccines that target swine skin DC subsets (Flu-DCVacAb), in order to provide novel veterinary vaccines and solid preclinical information for developing corresponding human vaccines. The French coordinator has identified the conservation of DC subset organization across mammals based on functional and transcriptomic comparative analyses. This led to the selection of molecular candidates that could allow (1) targeting the “antibody promoting” DC type with the c-type lectins DECTIN2, MANNOSE R and ASGPR2 and (2) targeting the “cytotoxic T cell promoting” DC type, with the c-type lectins DEC205, CLEC9A, CLEC12A and the chemokine receptor XCR1. Interestingly, the Mexican coordinator has already developed the anti porcine DEC205 (not published), what represents the first and unique anti-DC Ab in pig. Both partners will share the development of complementary DCVacAb. Two strategies will be compared for associating the Flu antigens (FluAG) to the DCVacAb. The Mexican teams will molecularly clone a selection of DCVacAb as Single Chain Fragment variables (ScFv) fused to the Flu antigens. The French partners will exploit their novel patented strategy which consists in expressing the FluAG in fusion with streptavidin (SA) for making complexes with biotinylated DCVacAb, thus providing a simple and flexible way to antigenize DCVacAb. The selected FluAG will be the nucleoprotein (induces cytotoxic T cells) and the external ion channel M2e (induces protective antibodies) that can both induce protective immunity against a large array of Flu strains. Finally a virulent challenge with influenza A H1N1 2009 will be done in the pigs vaccinated with the most immunogenic DCVacAb structures. In total, the expectations of “DCVacFlu” are the: - Demonstration of the proof of concept of DC targeting by DCVacAb in a relevant target species (pig) for efficient vaccination via skin, - Evaluation of novel molecular targets such as XCR1, DECTIN2 and ASGPR2, not yet fully tested in the mouse, for DCVacAb strategies, - Challenge the concept of biasing the immune response types by targeting specific DC subsets in a relevant species, - Comparison of efficacy between 2 strategies to antigenize the DCVacAb, i.e. FluAG fused to ScFV and Streptavidin-FluAG linked to DCVAcAb. DCVacFlu shall provide cutting edge vaccines for veterinary medicine and convincing preclinical date useful for translation to humans, validated for influenza and transposable to other pathogens.

Sargassum inundation has caused major ecological, economical and societal damage in the Caribbean since 2011. The massive strandings are associated with the extensive occurrence of Sargassum aggregations in the Tropical North Atlantic. The Sargassum Origins project is an integrative framework designed to understand processes behind the expansion of holopelagic Sargassum populations in the Caribbean region. The first objective of this project is thus to clearly identify the Sargassum species growing in the North Atlantic and determine to what extent the species co-occur, with a particular focus on the species involved in inundations. The second objective is to study the connectivity of Sargassum at the Atlantic-scale, with a focus on the fluxes and exchanges that are occurring between the historical Sargasso Sea and the new area of proliferation. The hypothesis of a clonality of the pelagic species will be particularly studied. The role of the rivers (Amazonian rivers, African rivers) in the proliferation of the Sargassum is regularly argued, thus a third objective is to elucidate the origin of the nutrient inputs in the carbon and nitrogen Sargassum pathways.